So I was driving to the park a few days ago with my dogs and I suddenly had the urge to try a new park. As I came to the crossroads between the old park and the new park I had a "gut feeling" that I should not go to the new park, but I went anyway. I should have listened to my gut feeling, because at the new parks my dog got covered in ticks. I rushed him home and began removing them one by one and released them (far away). I was in a panic throughout this experience, and after I had removed all the ticks I could see I washed my dog with tick shampoo. Later that day I saw another tick on him. I removed it but its movements were slowed and it seemed like it was dying from the shampoo. I released it but I think it probably died. I feel a great sense of shame now. I also feel very bad for that tick, that he/she had to die such a bad death and because of me. I'm not sure what to do now, I feel very bad. I should not have used the shampoo

Last edited by Moth on Sun May 06, 2012 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

Killing is never a good option. Sometimes we are forced into difficult situations and do the best we can.Also, retake your precepts.with Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Dont beat yourself up. You did what you needed to do for your dogs. Ticks transmit lyme disease and had you not removed them your dogs might have suffered terribly for it.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah

Having a dog means it's your responsibility to look after your dog, which among other things means preventing him/her from suffering if you can.

What happened isn't ideal just realise you did what you had to do and didn't have much other choice, accept the kamma of it because the kamma of watching your dog suffer would be worse.

"Right effort is effort with wisdom. Because where there is wisdom, there is interest. The desire to know something is wisdom at work. Being mindful is not difficult. But it’s difficult to be continuously aware. For that you need right effort. But it does not require a great deal of energy. It’s relaxed perseverance in reminding yourself to be aware. When you are aware, wisdom unfolds naturally, and there is still more interest." - Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Having a dog means it's your responsibility to look after your dog, which among other things means preventing him/her from suffering if you can.

Right, and the other side of the coin is to recognize the responsibility of pet-keepers to prevent their dogs from killing and harrassing wild-life as much as possible, and, especially for cat-people, to prevent your cat-friends from killing so many of the poor song-birds and little mice and things.

These seem to help:

Rain soddens what is covered up,It does not sodden what is open.Therefore uncover what is coveredThat the rain will not sodden it. Ud 5.5